Former Astronaut Leads New Space Habitat Research Institute at UC Davis
Stephen Robinson
By Andy Fell
University of California, Davis
In a significant step toward human-crewed space missions to the moon or Mars, NASA has awarded a grant of up to $15 million over five years to a new research institute led by the University of California, Davis. The HOME (Habitats Optimized for Missions of Exploration) Space Technology Research Institute will develop enabling technology for spacecraft and deep-space bases of the future.
HOME is led by Professor Stephen Robinson, chair of the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at UC Davis and a former astronaut.
Designing deep-space habitats for human-exploration missions currently being proposed by NASA and the international spaceflight community requires fundamental research plus integration of emergent technologies in autonomous systems, failure-tolerant design, human-automation teaming, dense sensor populations, data science, machine learning, robotic maintenance and on-board manufacturing.
Accordingly, the vision for the new HOME Institute is to synthesize the ideas and backgrounds of an experienced and diverse team of researchers across seven member institutions, Robinson said.
A highly autonomous deep-space habitat for human crews requires control by autonomy, robotics, and humans – the interactions and interdependencies between these three domains comprise the research landscape for the HOME Space Technology Research Institute.
With UC Davis as the lead institution, the HOME Institute includes partners at the University of Colorado, Boulder; Carnegie Mellon University; Georgia Institute of Technology; Howard University; the University of Southern California and Texas A&M University. Corporate partners are Blue Origin, Sierra Nevada Corporation and United Technologies Aerospace Systems.
Planning is now underway at UC Davis for a launch of research efforts in August.
2 responses to “Former Astronaut Leads New Space Habitat Research Institute at UC Davis”
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Nice to hear.In the Senate hearing today, NASA said they do not have a revised budget. They said a independent estimate of 8 billion$ more each year was too high. The only thing I thought of listening was a free return mission to Mars would only be longer than one to Luna but like Apollo 13, it would return. NASA always mentions this as a safety feature. Well, like SP station. The % of problems on a Moon mission that could be fixed by a return to Earth, I would like to hear from NASA. I still think while possible to land by ’24, that using NASA history as a guide, slips will keep it from happening.
A free return Mars trip would:
1. Cheap and would fit the budget.
2. It would be a good test for a free return Moon mission.
3. AG could be used to test living in Moon and Mars gravity
4. Old astronauts could be used. If they do not get hurt enough to function because of the radiation. They are going to die soon any way. Radiation usually takes a long time to get cancer etc. A good test of radiation danger on a trip to and from Mars.
5.Inspire everyone.
6.Existing spacecraft and launchers can be used. Including SLS. I prefer SRB. Foreign partners could be used.
7. IM has done a lot of work on the mission, so NASA would not have a lot to do.
8. 2020 I think is the next launch date. or ’22, 24′ etc. Every 2 years.
9. Work on a ’24 Moon landing could continue. A free return Mars mission would be a backup in case slips moves the ’24 mission beyond Dec ’24.
PS: A Senator said science not politics. Sounds like they may turn it down because not much science. Science can be found, but not mentioned much or at all by NASA. Checking for ice I guess is science. What they mention most is doing something. I guess we are to expect science to appear naturally. Perhaps an Astronaut will bring along a telescope in their baggage. Don’t forget your camera.
Space Daily reports that China plans to build a Moon base on the South Pole in about to years. So I guess we are in a race with China. Beating them by 5 years would be impressive.
http://www.spacedaily.com/r…
May need an radio observatory on Moon far side to block interference from the WiFi sats. Maybe a large dish pointed away from earth may work. Users of these networks should have to pay for the observatories needed.